2,371 research outputs found
Strategies of increasing carpooling behavior among urban commuters / BEBR No. 427
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 14-15)
Unbiased estimates of galaxy scaling relations from photometric redshift surveys
Many physical properties of galaxies correlate with one another, and these
correlations are often used to constrain galaxy formation models. Such
correlations include the color-magnitude relation, the luminosity-size
relation, the Fundamental Plane, etc. However, the transformation from
observable (e.g. angular size, apparent brightness) to physical quantity
(physical size, luminosity), is often distance-dependent. Noise in the distance
estimate will lead to biased estimates of these correlations, thus compromising
the ability of photometric redshift surveys to constrain galaxy formation
models. We describe two methods which can remove this bias. One is a
generalization of the V_max method, and the other is a maximum likelihood
approach. We illustrate their effectiveness by studying the size-luminosity
relation in a mock catalog, although both methods can be applied to other
scaling relations as well. We show that if one simply uses photometric
redshifts one obtains a biased relation; our methods correct for this bias and
recover the true relation
How Barred is the NIR Nearby Universe? An analysis using 2MASS
We determine a firm lower limit to the bar fraction of 0.58 in the nearby
universe using J+H+Ks-band images for 134 spirals from 2MASS. With a mean
deprojected semi-major axis of 5.1 kpc, and a mean deprojected ellipticity of
0.45 this local bar sample lays the ground work for studies on bar formation
and evolution at high redshift.Comment: In the proceedings "Penetrating Bars through Masks of Cosmic Dust:
The Hubble Tuning Fork strikes a New Note
Detection of Dense Molecular Gas in Inter-Arm Spurs in M51
Spiral arm spurs are prominent features that have been observed in extinction
and 8m emission in nearby galaxies. In order to understand their molecular
gas properties, we used the Owens Valley Radio Observatory to map the
CO(J=1--0) emission in three spurs emanating from the inner northwestern spiral
arm of M51. We report CO detections from all three spurs. The molecular gas
mass and surface density are M M_{\sun} and
50 M_{\sun} pc. Thus, relative to the spiral arms,
the spurs are extremely weak features. However, since the spurs are extended
perpendicular to the spiral arms for 500 pc and contain adequate fuel for
star formation, they may be the birthplace for observed inter-arm HII regions.
This reduces the requirement for the significant time delay that would be
otherwise needed if the inter-arm star formation was initiated in the spiral
arms. Larger maps of galaxies at similar depth are required to further
understand the formation and evolution of these spurs and their role in star
formation - such data should be forthcoming with the new CARMA and future ALMA
telescopes and can be compared to several recent numerical simulations that
have been examining the evolution of spiral arm spurs.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, emulate-apj format, accepted in Ap
Ectopic production of human placental lactogen by human breast tumors
Serum samples from 72 patients with established carcinoma of the breast were investigated for ectopic presence of hPL. Further, the relationship of ectopically-secreted hPL and hCG-β in breast cancer was investigated. Ten of 72 patients examined had detectable hPL and 12 had detectable hCG-β, at 1-2 ng/ml serum sensitivity of the assay. The presence of hPL in serum of breast cancer patients was found to be independent of that of hCG-β. Sera of 13 patients with cystic mastitis, five with fibroadenoma, two with acute inflamation of breast, 20 normal women (non-pregnant) and 20 normal men did not show any detectable serum hPL or hCG-β at the above mentioned sensitivity of the assay. Since these hormones were not detectable in normal men, normal non-pregnant women, and in patients having other pathological conditions of breast, the possible use of them as markers in cancer is expected
Redshift space 21 cm power spectra from reionization
We construct a simple but self-consistent analytic ionization model for rapid
exploration of 21cm power spectrum observables in redshift space. It is fully
described by the average ionization fraction and HII patch size
and has the flexibility to accommodate various reionization scenarios. The
model associates ionization regions with dark matter halos of the number
density required to recover and treats redshift space distortions
self-consistently with the virial velocity of such halos. Based on this model,
we study the line-of-sight structures in the brightness fluctuations since they
are the most immune to foreground contamination. We explore the degeneracy
between the HII patch size and nonlinear redshift space distortion in the one
dimensional power spectrum. We also discuss the limitations experimental
frequency and angular resolutions place on their distinguishability. Angular
resolution dilutes even the radial signal and will be a serious limitation for
resolving small bubbles before the end of reionization. Nonlinear redshift
space distortions suggest that a resolution of order 1 -- 10\arcsec and a
frequency resolution of 10kHz will ultimately be desirable to extract the full
information in the radial field at . First generation instruments
such as LOFAR and MWA can potentially measure radial HII patches of a few
comoving Mpc and larger at the end of reionization and are unlikely to be
affected by nonlinear redshift space distortions.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures. Revised version. Includes minor changes. Adds
appendix on accomodating a distribution of radii for the HII regions.
Accepted for publication in Ap
Comparative Analysis of Molecular Clouds in M31, M33 and the Milky Way
We present BIMA observations of a 2\arcmin field in the northeastern spiral
arm of M31. In this region we find six giant molecular clouds that have a mean
diameter of 5713 pc, a mean velocity width of 6.51.2 \kms, and a mean
molecular mass of 3.0 1.6 10\Msun. The peak brightness
temperature of these clouds ranges from 1.6--4.2 K. We compare these clouds to
clouds in M33 observed by \citet{wilson90} using the OVRO millimeter array, and
some cloud complexes in the Milky Way observed by \cite{dame01} using the CfA
1.2m telescope. In order to properly compare the single dish data to the
spatially filtered interferometric data, we project several well-known Milky
Way complexes to the distance of Andromeda and simulate their observation with
the BIMA interferometer. We compare the simulated Milky Way clouds with the M31
and M33 data using the same cloud identification and analysis technique and
find no significant differences in the cloud properties in all three galaxies.
Thus we conclude that previous claims of differences in the molecular cloud
properties between these galaxies may have been due to differences in the
choice of cloud identification techniques. With the upcoming CARMA array,
individual molecular clouds may be studied in a variety of nearby galaxies.
With ALMA, comprehensive GMC studies will be feasible at least as far as the
Virgo cluster. With these data, comparative studies of molecular clouds across
galactic disks of all types and between different galaxy disks will be
possible. Our results emphasize that interferometric observations combined with
the use of a consistent cloud identification and analysis technique will be
essential for such forthcoming studies that will compare GMCs in the Local
Group galaxies to galaxies in the Virgo cluster.Comment: Accepted for Publication in the Astrophysical Journa
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